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Xin Zhao

Champion Build Guide

Teemo's Code - Teemo Top Resource (Grasp / Aery / PTA / DH)

Hello dear reader and welcome to my Teemo's Code - Teemo Top Resource (Grasp / Aery / PTA / DH) guide! I am a rather well known MobaFire author (or was, back in the day) and still play at least a moderate amount of games every season. I have always been in love with Teemo due to his wonderful personality and humouristic approach in this game and therefore I have played him across the seasons as my go-to top laner.

This is a quick resource with a heavy focus on the cheatsheet instead of having full walls of text. I have decided to avoid going into detail about every single thing and avoid all the maths that I used to have in all my previous guides for two simple reasons:
1. It saves me time and makes it easier for me to provide accurate and up-to-date information.
2. The minutiae (maths for example) are useless to about 99 % of the readers and I would like to avoid the hassle of updating it every month due to item changes or slight buffs or nerfs to Teemo's kit.

With that being said, any criticism and questions are welcomed here. I might not answer immediately, but I will try to get back to you as soon as I possibly can. This guide is lightweight and shouldn't be considered the be-all-end-all guide, but instead a resource of knowledge and choices that you can build on.

ABOUT THE GUIDE

Pros

+ Ranged top laner+ Extreme vision if utilised properly+ People have no idea how to play against+ Blind for enemy ADC+ Great split pusher+ Easy to pick up

Teemo is a great generalist pick against many other champs, as a ranged top laner he really doesn't have terrible match ups in most cases. This is especially against current meta top laner. Teemo can put very much pressure to the top side and increase that pressure throughout the game via splitpushing.

Cons

- Poor late-game- Doesn't really fit into any comps- Hard to master the nuances- Build can be very confusing- No "great" secondary tree- No hard CC or mobility

Teemo's weaknesses are very apparent, as he has many pitfalls that will cause huge frustration while playing. Having no place in any meta team comps is really bad for you, since you can't really play into your team and you are usually left as a solo entity for your team, instead of relying on your team and having a team to fall back into.

You may be wondering why you would ever want to pick Teemo over more meta toplaners such as Urgot, Viktor or Aatrox. Well, to be quite honest, you usually don't. You can, is the proper term to use. Teemo lacks in many fields; he has no wave clear before level 6, can't reliably join teamfights and his splitpushing is a huge risk due to lack of mobility and power if you are even or behind enemy team. But there is one incentive to pick Teemo. He is extremely fun to play and you can shut down enemy top laner without much of hassle if you just play it right. Teemo is also almost never banned and there are only a couple of people who know his weaknesses and can use them against him.

In short, Teemo is an extremely fun champion with a very straight-forward play pattern that you probably shouldn't pick up in order to climb in any team composition.

In most cases, you will have the combination of Flash and Ignite. I myself never use Teleport, especially now that it has been nerfed so you can't cancel it. For tanks, it isn't as bad, but for someone as squishy as Teemo, it can be lethal.

Summon Teery

Spoiler: Click to view

This is the most common and currently the better choice. The nerfs to Resolve Tree caused it to fall out of my favour due to loss of Bone Plating and Second Wind. With this rune page you will increase your harassing potential, have decent mana sustain with one Doran's Ring and have some needed survivability due to rather high heals from Toxic Shot and Noxious Trap.

I think that this rune page, while fun, is less than optimal at the current moment due to nerfs previously mentioned. I am still using it and having success, so it isn't totally worthless! With Grasp of the Undying you can easily abuse melee champions (not recommended against ranged champions) and gain a little bit of sturdiness with that trouble. Second Wind and Overgrowth are there to make your laning and mid game more bearable and in case you build some HP, you can really start to feel the difference.

Currently, I wouldn't recommend this rune page, but if you want to have fun or you want to give it a go, I can't see why you shouldn't.

Alternatives

+5 Armor → +6 Magic Resist

Press the Teemo

Spoiler: Click to view

Really fun rune page to play, especially once you get more acquainted with how to play Teemo and how to trade properly. Works perfectly well against champions that you can pressure with jungle ganks (or without!). Wouldn't recommend for beginners or for people who are actually trying to achieve a better rank, but if you are going for rank, you wouldn't be playing Teemo!

Teemo Harvest

Spoiler: Click to view

High-pressure build, the most meme rune setup of them all. Doesn't really outperform any other rune setup in anything other than possible burst in the late game. Doesn't work too well on Teemo after the many nerfs after its rework.

Ability Description

Guerrilla Warfare

Teemo gains invisibility if he stands still for 1.5 seconds without acting or being acted upon. He will remain stealthed so long as he doesn't move, doesn't act, or is displaced. If within a brush, Teemo gains stealth after 1.5 seconds even while moving and may move freely within its boundaries without breaking stealth.

Your outplay potential is basically this ability. If you miss-time it or you use it on the wrong target, it can really be the death of you. Blinding Dart is actually very strong ability and if maxed, really powerful during the laning phase.

Don't use Blinding Dart to harass unless you can put in a couple of basic attacks as well since enemies can easily sustain so telegraphed damage, especially if they have shields.

Spoiler: Click to view

Ability Description

Move Quick

Teemo scampers around, passively increasing his Movement Speed until he is struck by an enemy champion or turret. Teemo can sprint to gain bonus Movement Speed that isn't stopped by being struck for a short time.

Passive: Teemo's Movement Speed is increased by 10/14/18/22/26% unless he has been damaged by an enemy champion or turret in the last 5 seconds.
Active: Teemo sprints, gaining twice his normal bonus for 3 seconds. This bonus is not lost when struck.

Tips & Tricks

Really nice for getting back to lane

You can delay this ability until level 4 without a doubt

You can evade some ganks with this ability, if you are sure they'll hit you with an ability, save this ability for after they have hit to have maximum uptime on your Move Quick

Spoiler: Click to view

Ability Description

Toxic Shot

Each of Teemo's attacks will poison the target, dealing damage on impact and each second after for 4 seconds.

Teemo throws an explosive poisonous trap using one of the mushrooms stored in his pack. If an enemy steps on the trap, it will release a poisonous cloud, slowing enemies and damaging them over time. If Teemo throws a mushroom onto another mushroom it will bounce, gaining additional range.

Tosses a stored mushroom as a trap that detonates if an enemy steps on it, spreading poison to nearby enemies that slows Movement Speed by 30/40/50%, reveals them and deals 200/325/450 (+50% Ability Power) magic damage over 4 seconds. Traps last 5 minutes and take 1 second to arm and stealth. If a thrown trap lands on another trap, it will bounce up to 3/4/5 Teemos further before planting. Teemo forages for a mushroom every 0 seconds, but he is only big enough to carry 3 at once.

Tips & Tricks

You want to plant your mushrooms to choke points to be able to zone off enemies, give vision and to actually have them explode in order to deal damage

Don't waste this ability to clear the wave if there are only a handful of minions! It costs a lot of mana and has a high CD and it is what can keep you safe at top lane.

Spoiler: Click to view

Starting Items & Early Game Items

DORAN'S RING

The item you want to start with in 99 % of your games. It gives you great mana sustain, damage and fighting stats in order to survive throughout the early game and to transition to the mid game smoothly. You can get two of these, if you seem to be in a trouble.

If you are playing a lane where you don't really have to worry about surviving and you can just focus on farming and have absolutely no kill potential over the enemy. I wouldn't recommend taking this item unless you can safely farm with ease and when you don't really have to worry about people ganking you or the enemy top laner going all in on you.

DORAN'S BLADE

If you happen to need more survivability in terms of life steal, you can get this item. Otherwise, Doran's Ring is better in almost every case.

DORAN'S SHIELD

Must have against very hard and poke-y lanes where you really can't even farm and where you don't have kill potential over your opponent. I recommend this if you are unfamiliar to Teemo and you are playing against a hard or very hard matchup because the stats it gives are really nice. If you are doing fine in lane, usually this item is rendered more or less useless by it.

REFILLABLE POTION

Great early purchase to limit your gold spending on health potions and/or other survivability items. Recommend in almost every game.

CORRUPTING POTION

Can't recommend this item, but it is situationally good against hard matchups where you can get Doran's Ring, Dark Seal and Corrupting Potion, but it will really set you back in gold. Only as a desperate measure.

Wit's End is a rather odd item in my opinion. It increases your damage by a mile but it also offers a very defensive way to build when you are matched against magical damage. I can recommend building Wit's End first if you are playing the Grasp of the Undying rune page, but otherwise I'd leave it for after you have got yourself both Nashor's Tooth and Liandry's Torment.

MORELLONOMICON

Really great item with great build path and great parts. You can simply sit on Oblivion Orb for increased damage or go straight for the Morellonomicon in case you need the grievous wounds. I think that Morellonomicon is an item that you want to get in at least half of your games though, since it can effectively counter enemy ADC's heal, sustain and the enemy team's other heals.

ZHOYNA'S HOURGLASS

Great defensive item when you are in the need. It can be used against certain ultimates ( Death Mark or Requiem) and it is really effective against champions that would otherwise use lethal CC on you. It can block huge amounts of damage if used properly, but it can also leave you in a bad spot after the stasis ends.

BANSHEE'S VEIL

Great defensive item against magical damage and abilities that the enemy is more likely to use from afar to cause you to be in a bad position in order to kill you ( Rocket Grab). Banshee's Veil can counter enemy champions that have very meaningful combos in their kit that once disturbed are merely a shadow of the full potential. Therefore this item is the smart man's choice in games where you can just mess up the enemy and survive most encounters. Against AD it has no use (unlike Zhonya's Hourglass, which is useful against all damage), so you really need to think, if this item is worth it after all.

VOID STAFF

Buy whenever you have the chance and you need to increase damage against beefier targets. Especially great with Liandry's Torment, as Liandry's Torment's damage is highly reduced by any magic resist on the enemy team and therefore can render your Noxious Traps useless.

LICH BANE

When you need the burst for enemies and you are ahead, Lich Bane is potentially one of the best items you can get, but can also have absolutely no worth to you, because you need to be able to get enough damage during shorter time windows than you would with items such as Morellonomicon for example.

TWIN SHADOWS

This item can seem a bit odd, but it is great for staying safe while splitpushing and having some sort of catchup method once the enemy starts to run. Really great movement speed item as well.

GUINSOO'S RAGEBLADE

Potentially good on Grasp of the Undying Teemo, but can't really say that it is worth the time or the money in most cases. The build path is not that great for Teemo and there are a ton of items that better suit what Teemo does best.

Boots

SORCERER'S SHOES

The generalist approach to game and the best boots that exist for Teemo. Unfortunately, you can't build these boots nearly as often as you would like to. If you are even, ahead or only slightly behind, these are the boots that you want to get in most cases.

NINJA TABI

Against AD heavy comps or when the enemy has someone who is extremely fed that mostly deals physical damage. In most cases these are the boots that will make a noticeable difference in damage.

MERCURY'S TREADS

Against magic damage and crowd control. These are boots that I only build when I am desperate, as most CC is actually rather useless against splitpushers and you can even dodge most spells anyway. Really good boots though!

I think that the general gameplay is rather simple and straightforward: you want to splitpush and plant Noxious Traps in the enemy jungle / your own jungle to ensure that the enemy can't move without you knowing where they are going and to maximise the annoying aspects of Teemo.

In the map above you can see my common spots for Noxious Traps. Of course, the map also translates to the other side, but to keep it simple I had to leave some dots away.

But this map isn't the be-all end-all of all Noxious Trap placements and there are far more uses for Noxious Trap than what is depicted in this map. You need to think for yourself, where to put those deadly 'shrooms. You know the enemy is about to gank you and know where they will most likely gank? Put traps in the gank path or to your escape route in order to get away safely. Objectives are spawning and you know the enemies will most likely go for them? You should probably put mushrooms in the near vicinity of said objectives.

Good Noxious Trap Placement

Bad Noxious Trap Placement

Early Game / Laning Phase

During the laning phase you mostly want to focus on two things:

Getting farm

Denying enemy top laner's farm

(not dying)

As a ranged top laner you can make the enemy top laner's life rather unpleasant as you can usually harass without any trouble and you can yourself get easy farm without risking your safe position. Just remember that constantly auto attacking near enemy minions will cause them to aggro you, which will lead to loss of health and a pushed lane. If you can run into a bush right after an auto attack, it drops the aggro. Try to play as aggressive as possible, because otherwise, you are kind of sacrificing the only lead and pro you are getting from picking Teemo and that would nullify the pick overall.

Throughout the game, it is advisable to invest in getting Control Wards, as they can deny enemy vision (leading to them becoming more susceptible to ganks) and increase your ward amount by one that potentially lasts indefinitely. You also want to have nice ward coverage as Teemo has very limited escaping abilities apart from Move Quick, which isn't a very great one and is rather telegraphed. Getting an early tower causes more pressure to top lane and it helps ease off the pressure from your mid lane and bot lane, as the enemy jungler is more likely to come and gank a lane that is that much longer than lanes that shorter and therefore have less area to cause any detrimental effects to the enemy.

When you get the first turret, you can invade the enemy jungle and play more from the mid lane than the top lane. Teemo can dish out some good damage and his ganks can be extremely devastating, if you have some crowd control at mid lane or in the jungle. When you are invading enemy jungle, leaving Noxious Traps to show the enemy jungler and to deny his health and sustain in the jungle can benefit you, as you are leaving the enemy jungler vulnerable and with the information, that the enemy team knows where he is and where he is going. This will cause the enemy jungler's pressure to drop by a mile.

Mid Game

During the mid game or when you are approaching the next game phase, you will most likely find your splitpushing. And you shouldn't be ashamed of that. There isn't much Teemo can do in teamfights in most cases, but as a split pusher he excels. He can duel rather well and he can cover his splitpushing using Noxious Trap in the enemy jungle. This might be detrimental to your team in case your team decided (for some reason) to fight as 4 against 5 enemies, but it can be hugely beneficial if the enemy needs to send two players to take you down. You always need to consider your options, but in most cases, splitpushing is the way to go.

When you are splitpushing, be sure to get Control Wards to clear enemy wards and to deep ward enemy jungle, accompanied by numerous Noxious Traps. You also want to secure your escape route, for when you need it. There is no chance the enemy will let you push the turrets indefinitely. Using one Noxious Trap per wave to clear the wave is fine though, as it speeds up your wave clear so much.

Make sure to secure the objectives around the lane that you are pushing. If you are pushing to red team's top side, those objectives would be red buff and baron. If you are pushing to blue team's top side, those objectives are blue buff and baron respectively. When pushing bot, the dragon is the main objective instead of baron.

Late Game

You want to follow the same plan as in the mid game, but with more focus on the objectives as one objective can make or break the game for you.